Title: "The Blood of a Cannibal"
Chapter 1 "A New Factor in the Case of 'Hannibal the Cannibal'"
Author: Jerome Mullins
Summary: What if Clarice and Hannibal weren't actually meant for each other and it is the good doctor's son, that's right, _son_, who wins her heart? This story continues where the movie _Hannibal_ leaves off and stretches to present day.
Rated: R, I have this rating posted because the story could very well turn graphic and horrific, especially since this story contains a cannibal.
Disclaimer: I do not own the names nor the characters of any one mentioned in here except for the original character of Dr. Lecter's son. This story belongs to the great and talented Thomas Harris and all those who were able to bring our favorite cannibal to the big screen so successfully. Please don't sue me, it's neither worth the time nor the effort. You can get nothing from me, for I am a poor college student.
Author's Notes: I had this idea in the back of my mind for some time now and thought that since I all ready write fan fiction for _The X-Files_ , I thought I might as well write for another favorite story of mine.
Feedback: Please do, it's the only thing I can look forward to since I can't get paid. You can also find my other works here at fanfiction.net.
* * *
Clarice Starling looked up to the night sky. Off in the distance the Fourth of July fireworks display had begun. She could hear the whistle of the rocket as it raced into the sky and then burst into flames in a display. At that moment she could recall the words Dr. Hannibal Lecter had just spoken to her:
"Tell me, Clarice, would you ever say to me: 'Stop, if you love me, you'd stop'?"
"Not in a thousand years." She heard herself answer. But was that really her? Was that her voice telling him no? Or was it the morphine? Perhaps it may have even been the sudden disgust and fear that had taken hold of her upon witnessing her enemy's brain being sautéed and served to him as if it were a buttery mushroom.
Then there was that kiss. Deep and filled with passion. Dr. Lecter was most certainly a devil for no angel could kiss like that. But still there was something lacking in that kiss. The deep, heated passion was only from him, not for her. Were her defenses and fear of this man still up? No. She knew that he wouldn't be able to bring himself to harm her. Even with the cleaver raised above his head, she knew that terrible force he would let out would be directed at his own person, never hers. But still.
Could he have been wrong about their destiny? Was it possible that he was wrong? That although he was obviously in love with her, she could not feel same for him? She looked through the bars of his plight, and only saw a monster?
She wondered if that had occurred to him too.
The police searched the house, found Krendler in his butchered state, the disembodied hand, the nicely arranged dinner table that still waited inside. Everything was there, except for Dr. Lecter.
Special Agent Pearsall arrived an hour later, he was glad to see Starling still alive, he didn't even mention the horrors he had found at Mason Verger's Muskrat Farms. After the ordeal she had just been through, he wasn't even going to accuse her of disobeying his orders to stay away from the case.
Starling sat on the bottom step with a deputies' coat draped over her. Her elbows rested on her thighs and her arms supported her head that was hunched on her fists. Pearsall slowly walked over to her and shuffled his feet.
"Paul's dead."
"He wouldn't have survived." She said softly. "An infection would have set in sooner or later."
"It looked like Lecter was making an effort to clean up in there before he got away, he dumped some of the stuff in Paul's brain, dirty dish rag." Pearsall cleared his throat. "It looks like you put up a fight in there, got the handcuffs on him, attached them to-"
"Myself." She looked up at him. "I handcuffed him to myself."
"He could have killed you, Starling."
"No he wouldn't have." She shook her head and stood up, her balance was back. The morphine had finally worn off. "He cut off his own wrist, he could have easily cut off mine."
"But he didn't." Pearsall said that more to himself than to her.
"Nope." She walked into the living room to sit on the sofa.
"Any ideas as to where he's gone?" Pearsall joined her.
"None." She sighed. "He won't be able to go back to Florence, although I'm sure that hurts him a bit. He'll go anywhere where he isn't wanted with an outstanding arrest. Posting flyers in the airports might help, they might not. He'll blend in."
"Even with a missing hand?"
"Definitely." She nodded. "He'll probably work on getting a prosthetic limb as soon as he can. My best bet is that he's got a few phony documents already made out for his escape into another country by now. He had been in the United States since Pazzi's death. That's two months without anyone noticing."
"Still, it would be more difficult now that he's injured. How ever he decides to mask it, he can't hide that he's missing a limb."
Starling nodded but didn't say anything. Still she doubted that he would be so easily caught. She decided to let Pearsall and the others have their confidence, anything to make them sleep better at night. Starling knew that she was going to sleep well though, Dr. Lecter wasn't going to pay her an unexpected house call any time soon.
* * *
The events that lead to Starling's return to the FBI happened within a month. Mason Verger was linked to depositing $500,000 into Paul Krendler's bank account, the large sum of money was deposited just before his death. Found at Verger's mansion were documents were found that helped get the boars and their deceased owners brought into the country from Sardinia as well as dictated plans for the demise of Dr. Hannibal Lecter once he was under Verger's captivity. Verger's former personal physician, Cordell Doemling, attested to the police and the press that Dr. Lecter was responsible for Verger's death by pushing him into the pen, then taking off with the unconscious Starling. The end of the ordeal added one more name to Dr. Lecter's victims list.
It made for a juicy story to the press, Dr. Lecter came back to kill his only surviving victim who had been plotting revenge. Then he kills one of the leading authorities in the Lecter manhunt while kidnapping the other to inflict future "horrors" as the papers wrote.
To ensure Starling's immediate reinstatement to her FBI duties, Cordell personally exonerated Starling to Pearsall and Assistant Director Noonan that Verger had written the postcard and delivered it to Krendler to get Starling out of active duty. As promised, Starling was returned to active duty without prejudice. In the first few weeks, Starling was forced to dodge the press on her way in and out of the J. Edgar Hoover building from those who wanted the inside scoop on her dinner with Dr. Lecter.
The reunion between Starling and Dr. Lecter expunged her previous record with the press and the one responsible for the fish market fiasco. It took the press weeks to finally let up on their pursuit of Starling, realizing that she was not going to address any of their questions. She never ever gave her superiors the full story as to what had happened to her that evening.
Thinking in her best interest, Pearsall tried to get Starling removed from the manhunt for Dr. Lecter, but she refused. The "Hannibal House" became her official office.
She wasn't sure why she wanted to stay there. She rationalized that it was in Dr. Lecter's best interest if it were she who apprehended him. She had told him that she had no wish to kill him. She just wanted him to be behind bars.
Then again, maybe she wanted to remain there to continue Jack Crawford's work. He was gone now and it was he and Will Graham who had apprehended Dr. Lecter in the first place, perhaps she felt like she owned something to Crawford. Another reason might have been that Starling enjoyed the case, but knowing full well that she might never catch him alive. Still another reason, and the most logical reason, was that by staying in the manhunt for Dr. Lecter, Starling would be too busy to be asked to join in a field operation. One more blow to her career would sink her.
Leads were coming in from all over Europe. Several customs agents called in to the FBI identifying him as boarding a plane from Kennedy to Heathrow and from Heathrow towards Hong Kong. Customs throughout China didn't even bother searching for Dr. Lecter but promised to keep a look out from now on. By Christmas, all the leads had dried up. Nothing new was coming in.
Starling spent most of her working days in her basement, rooting through profiles and airport surveillance videos. She did get a call from Florence that Inspector Renaldo Pazzi's widow had received several bouquets of red roses delivered to her door by an unseen messenger in the weeks before Thanksgiving. None of them had a note except for the last one which contained a pen sketch of Pazzi hanging from the Palazzo Vecchio alongside his naked ancestor with a quote from Dante's _Inferno_ made by Pier della Vigna as he hung from a bleeding tree. The handwritten note was signed "Io fei gibetto a me de le mie case, H."
Upon receiving the note, Starling handed it over for fingerprint analysis which confirmed that it had been written by Dr. Lecter. Starling wasn't at all surprised, but rather glad to see that he had not lost his sense of humor along with his hand. Although she did wonder how he was coping to not being able to play the piano any longer.
* * *
Three days before Christmas, Starling had finished her day early and went directly home. She lied down on her sofa with a glass of scotch by her side. The television and radio was of no interest to her at the moment and she decided to lay in the quiet of her apartment for a few moments. Her mind was quiet, clear of any work related clutter. The day before she had decided on searching through his past to further her search for him in the present. Her search would be centered on the people and places from the years before his incarceration that would offer any insight as to where he might have gone.
Now as she sat alone in her own home for an evening's rest, she was drifting off to sleep when the high pitched ring of her cell phone caught her attention. It sat next to her on her coffee table. She reached for it and answered sleepily.
"Starling, this is Pearsall, I need you to get down here right away."
"Why? Has something happened?" she reached for her shoes and slipped them on as she grabbed her keys.
"We've been searching through all of Lecter's old files that he's had stored in the Yourself storage facility, there were a few files here he kept locked up that the police didn't find before his arrest."
"Old files? On his former patients?"
"On his family."
Starling was out the door and half way to her car at this point. "Brothers and sisters right?"
"No, Starling. On his wife and son."
* * *
More on the way. Let me know what you think so far. Yes, I am aware that Starling and Lecter are in love with each other, but come on guys, just pretend will ya?
Chapter 1 "A New Factor in the Case of 'Hannibal the Cannibal'"
Author: Jerome Mullins
Summary: What if Clarice and Hannibal weren't actually meant for each other and it is the good doctor's son, that's right, _son_, who wins her heart? This story continues where the movie _Hannibal_ leaves off and stretches to present day.
Rated: R, I have this rating posted because the story could very well turn graphic and horrific, especially since this story contains a cannibal.
Disclaimer: I do not own the names nor the characters of any one mentioned in here except for the original character of Dr. Lecter's son. This story belongs to the great and talented Thomas Harris and all those who were able to bring our favorite cannibal to the big screen so successfully. Please don't sue me, it's neither worth the time nor the effort. You can get nothing from me, for I am a poor college student.
Author's Notes: I had this idea in the back of my mind for some time now and thought that since I all ready write fan fiction for _The X-Files_ , I thought I might as well write for another favorite story of mine.
Feedback: Please do, it's the only thing I can look forward to since I can't get paid. You can also find my other works here at fanfiction.net.
* * *
Clarice Starling looked up to the night sky. Off in the distance the Fourth of July fireworks display had begun. She could hear the whistle of the rocket as it raced into the sky and then burst into flames in a display. At that moment she could recall the words Dr. Hannibal Lecter had just spoken to her:
"Tell me, Clarice, would you ever say to me: 'Stop, if you love me, you'd stop'?"
"Not in a thousand years." She heard herself answer. But was that really her? Was that her voice telling him no? Or was it the morphine? Perhaps it may have even been the sudden disgust and fear that had taken hold of her upon witnessing her enemy's brain being sautéed and served to him as if it were a buttery mushroom.
Then there was that kiss. Deep and filled with passion. Dr. Lecter was most certainly a devil for no angel could kiss like that. But still there was something lacking in that kiss. The deep, heated passion was only from him, not for her. Were her defenses and fear of this man still up? No. She knew that he wouldn't be able to bring himself to harm her. Even with the cleaver raised above his head, she knew that terrible force he would let out would be directed at his own person, never hers. But still.
Could he have been wrong about their destiny? Was it possible that he was wrong? That although he was obviously in love with her, she could not feel same for him? She looked through the bars of his plight, and only saw a monster?
She wondered if that had occurred to him too.
The police searched the house, found Krendler in his butchered state, the disembodied hand, the nicely arranged dinner table that still waited inside. Everything was there, except for Dr. Lecter.
Special Agent Pearsall arrived an hour later, he was glad to see Starling still alive, he didn't even mention the horrors he had found at Mason Verger's Muskrat Farms. After the ordeal she had just been through, he wasn't even going to accuse her of disobeying his orders to stay away from the case.
Starling sat on the bottom step with a deputies' coat draped over her. Her elbows rested on her thighs and her arms supported her head that was hunched on her fists. Pearsall slowly walked over to her and shuffled his feet.
"Paul's dead."
"He wouldn't have survived." She said softly. "An infection would have set in sooner or later."
"It looked like Lecter was making an effort to clean up in there before he got away, he dumped some of the stuff in Paul's brain, dirty dish rag." Pearsall cleared his throat. "It looks like you put up a fight in there, got the handcuffs on him, attached them to-"
"Myself." She looked up at him. "I handcuffed him to myself."
"He could have killed you, Starling."
"No he wouldn't have." She shook her head and stood up, her balance was back. The morphine had finally worn off. "He cut off his own wrist, he could have easily cut off mine."
"But he didn't." Pearsall said that more to himself than to her.
"Nope." She walked into the living room to sit on the sofa.
"Any ideas as to where he's gone?" Pearsall joined her.
"None." She sighed. "He won't be able to go back to Florence, although I'm sure that hurts him a bit. He'll go anywhere where he isn't wanted with an outstanding arrest. Posting flyers in the airports might help, they might not. He'll blend in."
"Even with a missing hand?"
"Definitely." She nodded. "He'll probably work on getting a prosthetic limb as soon as he can. My best bet is that he's got a few phony documents already made out for his escape into another country by now. He had been in the United States since Pazzi's death. That's two months without anyone noticing."
"Still, it would be more difficult now that he's injured. How ever he decides to mask it, he can't hide that he's missing a limb."
Starling nodded but didn't say anything. Still she doubted that he would be so easily caught. She decided to let Pearsall and the others have their confidence, anything to make them sleep better at night. Starling knew that she was going to sleep well though, Dr. Lecter wasn't going to pay her an unexpected house call any time soon.
* * *
The events that lead to Starling's return to the FBI happened within a month. Mason Verger was linked to depositing $500,000 into Paul Krendler's bank account, the large sum of money was deposited just before his death. Found at Verger's mansion were documents were found that helped get the boars and their deceased owners brought into the country from Sardinia as well as dictated plans for the demise of Dr. Hannibal Lecter once he was under Verger's captivity. Verger's former personal physician, Cordell Doemling, attested to the police and the press that Dr. Lecter was responsible for Verger's death by pushing him into the pen, then taking off with the unconscious Starling. The end of the ordeal added one more name to Dr. Lecter's victims list.
It made for a juicy story to the press, Dr. Lecter came back to kill his only surviving victim who had been plotting revenge. Then he kills one of the leading authorities in the Lecter manhunt while kidnapping the other to inflict future "horrors" as the papers wrote.
To ensure Starling's immediate reinstatement to her FBI duties, Cordell personally exonerated Starling to Pearsall and Assistant Director Noonan that Verger had written the postcard and delivered it to Krendler to get Starling out of active duty. As promised, Starling was returned to active duty without prejudice. In the first few weeks, Starling was forced to dodge the press on her way in and out of the J. Edgar Hoover building from those who wanted the inside scoop on her dinner with Dr. Lecter.
The reunion between Starling and Dr. Lecter expunged her previous record with the press and the one responsible for the fish market fiasco. It took the press weeks to finally let up on their pursuit of Starling, realizing that she was not going to address any of their questions. She never ever gave her superiors the full story as to what had happened to her that evening.
Thinking in her best interest, Pearsall tried to get Starling removed from the manhunt for Dr. Lecter, but she refused. The "Hannibal House" became her official office.
She wasn't sure why she wanted to stay there. She rationalized that it was in Dr. Lecter's best interest if it were she who apprehended him. She had told him that she had no wish to kill him. She just wanted him to be behind bars.
Then again, maybe she wanted to remain there to continue Jack Crawford's work. He was gone now and it was he and Will Graham who had apprehended Dr. Lecter in the first place, perhaps she felt like she owned something to Crawford. Another reason might have been that Starling enjoyed the case, but knowing full well that she might never catch him alive. Still another reason, and the most logical reason, was that by staying in the manhunt for Dr. Lecter, Starling would be too busy to be asked to join in a field operation. One more blow to her career would sink her.
Leads were coming in from all over Europe. Several customs agents called in to the FBI identifying him as boarding a plane from Kennedy to Heathrow and from Heathrow towards Hong Kong. Customs throughout China didn't even bother searching for Dr. Lecter but promised to keep a look out from now on. By Christmas, all the leads had dried up. Nothing new was coming in.
Starling spent most of her working days in her basement, rooting through profiles and airport surveillance videos. She did get a call from Florence that Inspector Renaldo Pazzi's widow had received several bouquets of red roses delivered to her door by an unseen messenger in the weeks before Thanksgiving. None of them had a note except for the last one which contained a pen sketch of Pazzi hanging from the Palazzo Vecchio alongside his naked ancestor with a quote from Dante's _Inferno_ made by Pier della Vigna as he hung from a bleeding tree. The handwritten note was signed "Io fei gibetto a me de le mie case, H."
Upon receiving the note, Starling handed it over for fingerprint analysis which confirmed that it had been written by Dr. Lecter. Starling wasn't at all surprised, but rather glad to see that he had not lost his sense of humor along with his hand. Although she did wonder how he was coping to not being able to play the piano any longer.
* * *
Three days before Christmas, Starling had finished her day early and went directly home. She lied down on her sofa with a glass of scotch by her side. The television and radio was of no interest to her at the moment and she decided to lay in the quiet of her apartment for a few moments. Her mind was quiet, clear of any work related clutter. The day before she had decided on searching through his past to further her search for him in the present. Her search would be centered on the people and places from the years before his incarceration that would offer any insight as to where he might have gone.
Now as she sat alone in her own home for an evening's rest, she was drifting off to sleep when the high pitched ring of her cell phone caught her attention. It sat next to her on her coffee table. She reached for it and answered sleepily.
"Starling, this is Pearsall, I need you to get down here right away."
"Why? Has something happened?" she reached for her shoes and slipped them on as she grabbed her keys.
"We've been searching through all of Lecter's old files that he's had stored in the Yourself storage facility, there were a few files here he kept locked up that the police didn't find before his arrest."
"Old files? On his former patients?"
"On his family."
Starling was out the door and half way to her car at this point. "Brothers and sisters right?"
"No, Starling. On his wife and son."
* * *
More on the way. Let me know what you think so far. Yes, I am aware that Starling and Lecter are in love with each other, but come on guys, just pretend will ya?